The moment I saw her, I knew I was a goner
by TatianaTova
Summary: This is story #3 in the Their Lives, Their Thoughts Series. Sam Seaborn's thoughts about his wife.


When I wrote the first story a few days ago, I could not imagine that I will be writing three separate stories connected by the same circumstances, I just wanted to write the epilog to the store that I read at s/13182314/1/I-Found-My-Guy written by DowagerInTraining. By some reason, I was not able to stop thinking about the story and what could happen with the characters later in their lives.

I hope that you will like it.

Reviews are always welcomed.

Work Text:

The moment I saw her, I knew I was a goner.

I tell you what, if you do not believe in the love from first sight, you never loved. You can ask everyone and they will tell you, I loved her the moment I saw her. I did not understand what was happening, but I knew I was a goner. One second I had been introduced to a Republican who will be presenting an opposing view on Capital Beat, and next second, I lost myself in her eyes.

She looked so innocent, unsure of herself, asking for advice and lightly biting her lower lip. I immediately wanted to hug her and protect her from the harsh reality of this world. I could not understand what was happening to me, or why I had this reaction to her, but I knew that from this moment on I must protect her, until… Oh, yes, you know what happened next! She literally killed me in front of millions on a live TV! The worst part of all was, that Josh and Toby saw it too. When the show was over, I was ready to strangle her. But she politely approached me, lifted her lashes, looked into my eyes, smiled and thanked me for the interesting conversation. I looked in her eyes and I forgot about everything.

When a few days later, I was told that she will be working in the White House, I had no idea what to do. I wanted to see her every day; no, I wanted to see her every second of every day, but she was a Republican! Leo put me, and basically all of us, in our places and personally made sure to welcome her to our family. She was outside; some idiots tried to treat her like dirt, sent her dead flowers, called her name because she did her job. The job that the President of the United States asked her to do, and she answered with gusto and energy, and her quiet demeanor. I fired those idiots and even Lionel Tribbey, White House counselor, supported me and kicked their asses out of the office. When I came back, she did not cry, but she was upset, and her eyes looked so sad. I knew that it was my job to make her smile. I talked to everyone and we had a welcome party for her. She was surprised, I even can say that she was in shock when she saw all of us in her, so called, office. But she began to smile, and I knew that I was in heaven.

She fought me every day on every issue. She constantly reversed my possessions on a variety of topics. She constantly ate all my food. I on purpose began buying muffins, and I knew that she will eat them even if she was not hungry. It was her nervous habit to cover her shyness, which almost paralyzed her, and made her to babble non-stop. She even managed to babble in front of the President not ones, but twice. I tried several times to introduce her to the President, but every time something came up, and when eventually I arrange the meeting, she was dressed in the white bathrobe, dancing around her office and drinking! She threw her drink at me and I am sure he got splashed too. He wanted to have some fun, so he repeated my words to her. He called her a sex kitten! I was joking when I said it, but noooooo the president of the United States of America had to be a funning one. He said it to her! OK, do you really think that it was funny? Nah, not even close. The second time, she walked into Leo's closet thinking that it was a bathroom and did not come out from there until the President called her out. Instead of just smile and look, I do not know… bashful, she began talking about her need for peeing and a restroom. I never before or after saw the President taking aback; he was really surprised. But he smiled at her with the same smile that I saw him give Zoey, and I understood that he liked her and accepted her. She was part of the family, and we loved her… some loved her more than the others.

Do you seriously believe that I am so clumsy that I cannot carry 10 cups of coffee using a serving tray from one floor to another? Think again. I was getting coffee with her. She was next to me. We were trying to add some fun into the presidential speech. We all were bantering. Josh and Donna could not stop talking to each other, and I am sure, that if they were not so clueless, the entire conversation would be a plane old foreplay. While we were walking to a mess hall, we continued to banter, and I realized that our conversation was the same old foreplay too. I do not think that you need a lot of details, but it was the first time when I kissed her. I was sure that she would slap my face or knee me in the groin, but instead, she responded to my kiss. She opened her lips and invited me in. I kissed before; for God sake I was engaged-to-be-married; I had sex! But that kiss showed to me that I had no idea about the pleasure of a woman's kiss, touch or body. I knew then and there that I must, simply must, be with her. But we served at the pleasure of the President, and I did not want to put her in the middle of the scandal. We kissed, oh yeah, we kissed in her office, but we never crossed the line. And next, she was gone. She got a better offer that had better hours and she left White House and me behind forever. I thought so too… Thanks to whoever is in the haven I was wrong.

Don't tell me that you never did anything stupid and after regretted it. I am sure you did, but me being me if I screw-up entire country would know about it. I still do not know why I gave Will my name as the possible candidate; probably because I remembered my grandmother and I remembered how devastated she was after my grandfather passed away. I was too young to understand the full impact of the tragedy, but I remembered that my grandmother felt better when I tried to cheer her up. So, to cheer somebody else grandmother, I told Will that he can give her my name in case her late husband will win the election. Of cause I lost, I did not have the slightest chance to win. But the party "eldest" (Josh, Toby, and CJ) decided that the party need to be rejuvenated and for a few weeks I was a Guiney pig who was rejuvenating the party. In the end, I decided not to come back to DC. I got a really good offer from the law firm, I was immediately named a junior partner and I began writing contracts and negotiating deals on behalf of my clients. The life was good, money even better and I did not have a headache of working 7 days a week 16 to 18 hours a day. I missed my friends, but I began going out and even went on a few blind dates.

My last blind date became the only one that I ever talk about or actually remember. I was running late, why? I do not remember, but being a gentleman, I decided to buy some flowers and candies. When I entered a store, I was assaulted by a myriad of roses in all variety of colors. By some reason, I did not like any of them. In the corner of the refrigerator, I saw a small bouquet of orange-yellow calla lilies. They reminded me of Ainsley; she loved calla lilies. She ones told me that they were her favorite flowers and that her mom had a bouquet of the white calla lilies at her wedding. I bought them; the florist wrapped them in the brown paper and tide them with brown grass or something similar. The bouquet looked very nice, I added a small box of golden wrapped Godiva chocolates and hurried to see my date. When I got to the restaurant, I told hostess my name and she told me that a lady already was seated. She walked me straight to the table and my heart stopped. She was seated at the table and reading the menu. When she looked up, she was surprised to see me. After a few seconds of the confusion, she understood that I was her blind date. We laughed, talked, ate dinner, talked some more, went for a walk, and at 3 am we continue talking in the 24-hours Starbucks next to her home. She told me that her boss was opening a new branch of a firm in LA and she was sent here to deal was all legal problems or what not. By the end of the week, we began spending all our free time together. Rest became a family history. You do not need to know how we ended up in her bed during, or to be precise instead off our second date. Thank God she anticipated something like it may happen, or we would have had our first kid in nine months. She bought a box of condoms from a corner drug store literally 15 minutes before I came to pick her up to go to see a movie. Or the few weekends we spent on my boat sailing but mostly having mind-boggling sex below the deck. In less than 4 months we moved together and for all intent and purpose, we were family. I met her family, she met my parents one at a time. I bought a ring and was thinking how to propose when Josh again drafted me to "serve at the pleaser of the President". I did not tell him that I was with Ainsley, why? I still do not know why; I told him that I was getting married. He told me that my fiancé would need to pass the bar to work in DC; I neither confirmed nor denied if she would need to do it. When I talked to Ainsley that night, she told me that she would fly to DC and ask for her previous job. She got it on the spot. I decided to torment Josh a bit; but when I came, I knew that he was on an edge of a total meltdown, I sent him on vacation. He had enough presence of mind to take Donna with him. We were the first ones to find out that they were married. He never told me, I picked up signs by looking at them, something had dramatically changed, so I confronted Josh with my suspicions. He simply confirmed and never came back to it again. Later Donna told Ainsley everything and showed pictures.

To be honest I envied and still envy Josh. I lived through the Southern wedding with 12 bridesmaids and 12 groomsmen, a maid of honor and a matron of honor, a best man, two presidents, and 23 congressmen and senators, as well as 400 people, not counting 47 children, in attendants at our wedding. I lived through two meltdowns of my bride because of her mother's demands and wishes, and I learn never-ever-ever come between a bride and her mother unless you want to be dead before your time. The wedding was a blur, I saw only Ainsley in her Southern bell white dress with thousand upon thousand small purls all over the dress. When I bought her three string pearl choker, I was not sure if she would be able to wear it at the wedding, but I sent it to her anyway as the wedding gift. It matched her dress perfectly, she loved it and wears it all the time. One thing that I perfectly remember is the panic on my best man's face. From the moment all men were sent to the Ainsley grandparent's house to prepper for the wedding, Josh was distracted. I asked him what was wrong, he told me that Donna got some kind of bug and cannot shack it for more than a week, even in the morning on the day of the wedding she was vomiting. By the end of the wedding Mrs. Bartlet, forgive me Dr. Bartlet confirmed that Donna was not sick, but was pregnant. Josh jumped like a little kid and asked "who da man?" from everyone who was in an earshot. I knew that in a year I will have a child of my own too. My lovely bride was hugging Donna and both of them were crying; it was happy tears, but I knew what I had to do to make my bride happy. Eleven months later we had a son. Two years later we had twin boys. By the end of the first term of the Santos' administration, Ainsley was working part-time, and I was trying to hold together the administration after Josh had PTSD episode in the middle of the concert in presence of the President, congressmen, senators, dignitaries, diplomats and a lot of very important people. He was carried away on the stretcher; I was sure that he would die.

Eventually, I was fired by the new COS. Thank God I was fired. President Santos lost reelection. It took me 14 months, but I managed to confirm not verbally, but on the paper. Who, what, when and how pushed Josh to the brink. I had all the documents showing how they created the back noise, what music they used, which program was sent to Josh for preview. I knew who paid for everything, and I also knew that Josh must come back, he was a heart of the party, he was its backbone; without him, the party would not be able to survive. After I presented all documents to President Santos, Donna, Toby, Andy, CJ, Danny and of cause my beloved Ainsley, everyone knew that it was a cue created specifically to destroy the Democratic Party. We showed documents to Josh. To tell you that he was in shock, it means to tell you nothing. He slowly, very slovenly began to come back to life. He began with the small campaigns and eventually ran Andrea Wyatt-Zeigler presidential campaigns, yes both of them, and yes she won both times. Andrea asked Ainsley to be a White House Counsel, and Donna to be her COS. Girls agreed and for the last 6 years, they are running the country even better than we did.

Yes, I began telling you about my love for my wife. You want a word of advice when you are celebrating be very-very careful how, and pay the premium for the condoms. Our daughter was born eight and a half months after Andrea's first inauguration. So at least once I managed to please everyone. Josh and Toby call me "da man", I beat them both. I have 3 sons and a daughter. Noah Lyman is 8 years her senior, but I beginning to suspect that he will be my son-in-law if I don't kill him before that. Lyman men really like younger women, I just hope that we would be able to avoid a shot-gun wedding. Ainsley laughs, she tells me that I am acting like a papa-bear and that she is too young to even think about boys, but she is almost 6-years-old and she is as gorges as her mother. I am sure that every boy or man who will look at her will fall in love with her on the spot, and will be a goner like I was when I met her mother.


End file.
